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Pursuit of (Im)Perfection

As I sit down and look at the upcoming Super Bowl matchup between the Patriots and the Giants, I can’t help but notice some irony, as if the football gods have a sense of humor. The Patriots were huge underdogs to a clearly more talented Rams team in the Super Bowl following the 2001 season. No one gave them a chance, even though the Patriots were very competitive in the regular season meeting vs. the Rams, losing 24-17. Of course New England put together a brilliant defensive game plan in the Super Bowl and pulled off the upset 20-17 in the rematch. Here we are six years later, and the Patriots find themselves at the other end of this type of matchup. The early line shows New England as a 13 point favorite against the Giants, even though the regular season meeting was competitive, with New England winning 38-35 in week 17 at Giants Stadium. The path the Patriots took to get to the top of the league has no doubt been the result of great front office decisions, coaching and a huge boost from future Hall of Famer Tom Brady. I’ll preface the following remarks by saying that if the Patriots do beat the Giants to cap off their perfect season, they will absolutely deserve the accolades for putting together the first 19-0 season in NFL history. It would be difficult to argue that any team in history would be greater. That doesn’t mean that I or any other fan who doesn’t like the Patriots has to enjoy it.

It’s turned out to be a funny thing that the Patriots aren’t one of my favorite teams. In fact I used to like them. I’ve always had a soft spot for underdog teams that haven’t enjoyed much success, and if my Broncos are out of the playoff hunt I will typically root for the underdog team whoever it is, provided it’s not the Chiefs or Raiders. It is such that I rooted the Patriots on against the Rams in Super Bowl 36. I admired how the Patriots came out of nowhere behind a quarterback that no one had heard of prior to the season and put together one of the surprising upsets in Super Bowl history. I didn’t even mind them two years later when they won Super Bowl 38 against Carolina. The Patriots showed a lot of gusto winning what turned out to be one of the great games in Super Bowl history. I even tipped my cap to Bill Belichick when the Patriots beat my Broncos during that regular season in 2003, when he intentionally took a safety in the interest of field position late in the game, which allowed Brady to engineer a late drive to win. I even have to give them their due for rising back to the top this season after two years of playoff defeats.

So why is it that I have vehemently rooted against the Patriots this season, even against another team I hate, the Chargers? Part of it is there doesn’t seem to be much fun in seeing Goliath win, but there is more to it than that. For me, the straw that broke the camel’s back was this article from SI’s Paul Zimmerman. Naturally like most fans I was turned off by the accusations of Spygate against the Patriots. If any of the accusations of cheating are true, than you really have to question their success over their entire run. This article outlined examples from no fewer than three coaches that made me go “hmmm”. When multiple coaches say their headsets went down during key times of a game in Foxboro, it at the very least requires a closer examination of what is going on. Whatever proof may have existed has since been destroyed by the commissioner, so we’ll probably never truly know the extent of how much, or if, the Patriots really cheated. Even if this season were to be “clean” where others may not have been, it still puts a smudge on what should be the greatest feat in NFL history.

In a way it is really unfortunate that the Patriots have this hanging over their head. They made a number of brilliant front office moves to put the team together, perhaps the biggest acquiring Randy Moss for essentially nothing (a 4th round pick) from the Raiders, followed closely by getting Wes Welker from Miami for a 2nd round selection. Tom Brady is no doubt a Hall of Fame quarterback, and if he does win a fourth Super Bowl will be in Montana and Bradshaw territory. The fact is though that even if there is perception that all of the titles were not fairly won, it is not possible for me to root for them in any way. I find it difficult to believe that if the team was docked a 1st round draft pick and Belichick was fined the largest amount in league history for a coach ($500,000), that there wasn’t something going on there. It still seems unfair they get a first round pick next year anyway, and a top 10 pick to boot, via a trade with San Francisco. For me this scandal, for lack of a better word, puts a permanent black eye on the Patriots organization, and there is no possible way I can root for that kind of team.

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